


Good Things Come Unexpected

by zaynjhoran



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, sorry for the lack of Louis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-13
Updated: 2013-08-13
Packaged: 2017-12-23 09:59:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/925014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zaynjhoran/pseuds/zaynjhoran
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Zayn is the shy kid, Niall is popular and they attend a boarding school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Good Things Come Unexpected

**Author's Note:**

> The first oneshot I'm posting on AO3. So here goes nothing.

Zayn sits on the plush leather sofa in the far corner of the library, hidden behind bookshelves, absorbed in his second five-hundred-pages novel this week when he hears the heavy door to the library open and a babble of voices disturbs the peaceful silence. He hears a group of boys – voices deep but cheerful with laughter – come closer, spots them a second later as they walk towards the table not far from where Zayn is sprawled out on the couch, text books in hand. He recognises them, knows some of them are in a few of his classes but he doesn't know their names.

From what he can gather from their conversation they're complaining about Zayn's English teacher – probably theirs as well and now he remembers which class they share. One of them, with a messy blond mop of hair throws his head back and laughs loudly at one of the other's jokes. "You're an idiot," he hears the boy say, laughter still audible in his voice. One of the other boys, who both have a few inches on their blond friend and spot equally messy curly hair that falls into their eyes, gestures the blond to be quieter. The next second the third boy seems to have poked curly-number-one in the side because he lets out a high pitched "Ow!" and swats the boy's hand away. Curly-number-two buries his face in the boy's shoulder to stifle his chuckle. Zayn hides his snicker in his hand, adjusts his glasses and focuses on his book again.

He forgets about the three boys for a while as he gets lost in the story again, just hears the blond's laughter echoing through the room from time to time. It puts a small smile on Zayn's face when he hears it. The boy has a lovely laugh.

Zayn doesn't know how much time has passed but he guesses it's a good hour later when he looks up from his book again. He glances over to the group and sees the blond dropping his head face first onto his text book. Curly-number-one shoves his shoulder playfully in an attempt to cheer him up but the blond boy just groans in frustration and stays in the same position.

The boy then makes an attempt at reasoning with the blond boy but gets interrupted by curly-number-two, who starts pinching his cheek and laughs. The blond boy kicks his shin, lifts his head and closes his text book. "You're both fuckin' useless. This is the worst study group ever," he says loud enough for Zayn to hear it clearly and then leans back against the chair and crosses his arms over his chest.

The blond boy catches Zayn's eye for a second, before Zayn quickly looks away embarrassedly. He doesn't want to come off as some kind of creep who sits in a corner and watches people – although that's exactly what he does, he reminds himself. He's not a creep, though. He just likes observing his surroundings. 

Zayn hides his face in his novel again, flips the page over and continues reading when all of a sudden he hears someone addressing him with a cheerful, "Hey!"

When Zayn looks up he's met with the blond boy, who seemed to have walked over to him for whatever reason and is now standing a few feet away from him. Zayn tenses and doesn't know what to say.

"You're in Rogers' class too, right? Think I've seen you before," the boy smiles brightly and Zayn feels some of the tension leave his body, but he's still not entirely relaxed. Talking to strange people makes him uneasy. He always thinks he's going to make a fool of himself. It has happened before.

When he realises that the blond is waiting for an answer, he nods slowly, cheeks flushing just the tiniest bit.

"Uh, well, I wanted to ask if you could help me with something? Just for a few minutes. My friends are not really being helpful," he jerks his thumb over his shoulder, pointing towards the table several feet away where curly-number-2 is currently trying to mess up his friend's curly head some more, both of his hands tangled in the hair. The blond looks over his shoulder, then back to Zayn and rolls his eyes. "I'm Niall, by the way."

Zayn opens and closes his mouth a few times before finally stuttering out quietly, "I'm Zayn." Brilliant. He probably looked like a stupid goldfish and the boy'll think he's weird.  
"Ok, Zayn. So are you good at English? Think you can help me a little?"

Apparently Zayn hasn't screwed it up yet, so he nods again, afraid to use his voice in case he says something extremely dumb and gestures for the boy – Niall – to sit down next to him on the sofa. 

Niall flicks his book open and takes a few sheets of paper out, handing them to Zayn.

"Uh, I've been struggling with this part," he explains as he points at a few paragraphs at the bottom of the page he's written his essay on. "It's kinda all over the place. And I need a good mark."

Zayn skims the sheet. "'s not that bad," Zayn tells Niall, "can I?" he points to the pen which Niall is twirling around between the fingers of his hand. 

"Sure." He hands it over. Zayn takes it, careful not to let their hands brush.

He uses his book as a writing pad and starts scribbling away, scratching certain parts and writing another sentence above and putting down some notes at the bottom of the sheet. He's done within a few minutes. 

"Here," he says when he hands it back again. "Overall, it's not bad. Maybe look into some details again. Then you're good."

"Really?" Niall beams.

"Yeah. Your spelling is terrible, though," Zayn adds, chuckling a little.

"I know, I know. I should read more or somethin', but I can't be bothered," he says, scratching his head as he stands up. "Thanks, though. For the help. That was really nice of you. 'Cause you don't even know me, an' all."

"No problem," Zayn gives him a smile. 

Niall returns it. "Right. See you 'round, then?" he says, walking back to the table where his friends still not so successfully pretend to be studying.

When they leave about fifteen minutes later, Niall smiles brightly at Zayn on the way out and waves at him. Zayn waves back.  
_

Zayn's school routine continues as usual. He wakes up between messy sheets in his dorm room to the sound of his roommate's alarm blaring loudly through the silence and groans, turns on his side and buries his face under the pillow for a few minutes until he can't postpone getting up any longer. He gets dressed and heads downstairs for breakfast where he sometimes sits with his roommate Josh and his mates, but usually he joins Anthony, who lives in the room across the hall and is a couple years younger than him at his table. The two boys usually keep to themselves but they don't mind. Zayn quite likes it. He prefers having one or two close friends than a huge amount of people surrounding him, anyway.

The only thing that does change is he notices Niall and his two curly haired friends more from now on. He sees him in the hallways between classes, usually surrounded by a group of three or four guys and the same amount of girls, who laugh obnoxiously at everything the blond says. Zayn knows most of the people Niall hangs out with, but everyone does, really. They're the popular kids. Zayn wonders why he never noticed that Niall was a part of that particular group of people. And when he thinks of it, he wouldn't have expected Niall to be that kind of guy, but impressions can fool you. Zayn doesn't even really know Niall at all. But then again, Niall seems to be friends with everyone. So there's that.

As usual, Zayn is invisible as he walks through the corridors, satchel thrown over his shoulder, black horn-rimmed glasses sitting on his nose and messy black hair falling into his eyes because he's too lazy to style it. He's invisible to everyone, really, not just the people everyone knows and who only talk to the coolest kids at school. But to Zayn's surprise, Niall does notice him.

Whenever they cross ways on the way to class, Niall would shout Zayn's name, followed by some kind of greeting and a loud laugh and a wave on Niall's part and a small smile and a quiet hello on Zayn's. In their shared English class Niall acknowledges Zayn too, sometimes walks by his desk before the lesson starts and asks him how he's doing. They don't talk a lot, but it's something. Maybe even enough to consider them friends. 

The thought of it brings a smile to Zayn's face and paints his cheeks a soft pink, makes his heart beat a little faster in his chest. He hates himself a little for it, because he promised himself he wouldn't let it happen again. Last time he fancied someone didn't end well, and he swore to himself he'd spare himself from the pain of linking someone who doesn't like him back, or worse, the pain of said person making fun of him and humiliating him in front of fifty per cent of the student body. No, Zayn was done with crushing on people, thank you very much. 

That's what he tells himself, anyway.

It's not really working out, though.  
_

It's been two weeks since Zayn's talked to Niall for the first time, and he can't get him out of his head. He keeps catching himself drifting away during classes, his thoughts far too occupied by a cute boy with incredibly blue eyes, pink cheeks and a loud laugh to actually concentrate on the lesson. During the few classes he shares with Josh the other boy usually gives him weird looks whenever he zones out, but he doesn't mention it.

It's a Wednesday when he gets snapped out of his thoughts rather violently. Or maybe he was just too gone in his thoughts to notice someone approaching him and that's the reason why he jumps.

"What're ya daydreaming about?" the blond wants to know as he flops down on the chair next to Zayn. Zayn blushes because that's what he does when he doesn't know what to say, which apparently gives Niall the wrong idea as he starts grinning mischievously. "Ohh, hahaha. You don't have to tell me, I was just saying. How are you, mate?" Niall asks instead and that's something Zayn actually has an answer to, for once.

"I'm good, thanks. What're you up to?" he replies, starts packing his things together to busy his hands and keep himself from playing with his fingers which is one of his nervous habits.

"Uhh, nothing much. Friends and I are going down to the football pitch later, play a little. And I wanted to ask if you want to come with me – us I mean?"

Zayn is about to think of an excuse, not because he doesn't want to spend time with Niall, he does, but he's absolutely shit at football or any kind of sport really, and he's not keen on making a complete fool of himself in front of Niall.

When Zayn hesitates, Niall adds. "Forget about making up some story about being busy with homework, I'm not buying that. You've got enough time for that later. Just come with me, please?" he almost sounds pleading at the end. Zayn meet his eyes, which yeah. Pretty much take his breath away a little and he couldn't even say no to that face if he wanted to.

"Yeah, okay," he agrees finally.

"Great! Then meet me in ten minutes in front of the dorms? I've gotta go, kick my friends out of their rooms and stuff. See you in a bit!" Niall gives Zayn's shoulder a light squeeze and then he's gone, leaving Zayn standing there, trying to grasp what just happened.  
_

Zayn drops his books off in his room and spends several minutes pacing up and down the room, seriously contemplating not going. If he does, there's about a ninety-nine per cent chance that he's going to make himself look like an idiot in front of Niall and his friends. If he doesn't go, well. Niall wanted him to come. 

And that's enough for Zayn to get the courage to put on a pair of trainers and head downstairs to meet up with Niall where he told him to.

He arrives a few minutes late so Niall and his friends are already waiting for him. Niall jogs over to meet him halfway down the front path to the door of the dorms and wraps an arm around him to pat him on the back twice. All Zayn can think about is that Niall smells nice and his shirt is really soft and he is touching Niall.

"Started thinkin' that you wouldn't come," Niall says when he pulls back. 

"Sorry," Zayn scratches his neck awkwardly. "I'm here now, though."

"Right. Let's go," Niall exclaims, as they walk back to the group of Niall's friends and they all start heading in the direction of the football pitch.  
_  
Niall is a literal ball of energy and joy. He bounces from person to person, talks for a few seconds then moves on to the next and kind of manages to entertain a group of about ten people without really trying. He laughs a lot and cracks jokes and laughs some more and Zayn catches himself just watching Niall the entire walk to the pitch, smiling stupidly and wondering how someone like Niall would want to be friends with Zayn.

Zayn actually ends up playing football and even if he fucks up a couple of times and almost scores an own goal – almost – all in all, he doesn't do that bad. Not as bad as he thought he'd be, at least. He didn't break any bones, so it's already a victory for him.

"You don't usually play football, do you? You looked a bit lost from time to time." Niall throws an arm around Zayn's shoulders on the way back to the dorms, pulling him in until the sides of their heads touch. Zayn feels like he should be offended at what Niall said, because he pretty much just admitted that Zayn really is in fact, a complete fail when it comes to sports, but he just feels warm all over.

"Nah. It's not really my thing," he says.

"What's your thing, then?" Niall sounds genuinely curious. He slows Zayn down a bit so they fall behind, Niall's friends walking several feet ahead of them.

"Everything that doesn't involve balls – wait I don’t mean it like, or I do, I'm – oh god. I mean, I just. I suck at. Sports. Fuck," Zayn is red like a tomato by now and he's glad that it's getting dark so Niall can't see how hard he's blushing, because damn that had to be the most embarrassing thing he's ever said (Niall wouldn't notice even if it wasn't dark, he's too busy trying not to die of laughter anyway).

Zayn just stands there, wishing the ground would swallow him up as he watches Niall holding his stomach, head thrown back and loud laughter bubbling out of his candy pink lips. It's infectious, Niall's laughter, so Zayn eventually thinks fuck it and just joins in.

When Niall finally catches his breath again, says, still chuckling, "You're like, unintentionally funny. That's really cute."

"Thanks," Zayn mumbles sheepishly, looking at his feet. Niall bumps into his shoulder.

There's a moment of silence before Niall speaks up. "So you do like things that involve balls?" he almost starts cracking up again.

"I – I've not, I mean, I didn't really mean it like that, y'know like. Oh god, why did I say that," Zayn shakes his head. "I'm an idiot."

"You're not," Niall tells him. "So?"

"Do you mean if I – wait why do you even want to know?" god, Zayn would've never thought he'd be talking about this with Niall. 

"'Cause I need to know if my next move is a dumb idea or not," he replies and Zayn is about to ask what the fuck Niall is talking about when the blond pulls him in and, oh. Zayn's eyes flutter shut when Niall's starts kissing him softly. Niall's hand goes up to cup Zayn's face, thumb gently stroking his cheek, the other hand placed on Zayn's waist while Zayn has no clue what to do with his own. In the end he covers Niall's hand on his waist and intertwines their fingers and the other wanders to Niall's hip.

It's a really nice kiss. Not that Zayn can compare it to another one, though, because apart from that one time when he was eleven and kissed a girl on a school trip while playing Truth or Dare, he doesn't really have all that much experience with kissing. Especially not kissing boys. 

Niall is a really good kisser, though, that's something he can tell. His lips are soft and move slowly but with intent and there's just a little bit of tongue, sweeping across Zayn's bottom lip. It's over much too soon for Zayn's liking.

"You know, I wouldn't mind if we did a few things that involve balls. Or we just get a coffee at the café at the corner after school tomorrow. Both is fine with me," Niall breathes against Zayn's lips, chuckling quietly. Zayn feels like he's both breathing too hard and fast and not at all at once, his heart is racing and he can't believe that this is happening, but it is. 

"Yeah, coffee sounds fine," Zayn smiles. "Both sounds fine, actually, just maybe not tomorrow."

"We've got all the time in the world, babe. No need to rush," Niall reminds him, lifting Zayn's chin up with the tip of his fingers and pecks his lips again. "Let's go back to the dorms."  
_

The next day, Niall picks Zayn up at his room and they walk hand in hand across campus and Niall insists on paying for Zayn's order. They get a coffee to go each and drink them sitting under a tree in the grass near the football pitch, Zayn's head resting on Niall's shoulder.

Zayn still spends a lot of time in the library, lounging around and reading. But from then on, he's not alone anymore. Instead Niall is with him, usually doing – or pretending to do – homework or just lying next to Zayn and playing with his hair or playing on his phone and telling Zayn about whatever is going through his head.

Sometimes they hang out with curly-number-one and two – whose names are Harry and Liam, as Zayn later finds out – who are, like Niall said the first time he talked to Zayn, useless when it comes to school related things, but spending time with them is a lot of fun nonetheless.

Anthony joins them too sometimes and Zayn realises that having a lot of company is actually not that bad. It can be loud and get pretty crazy at times, but if he doesn't feel like participating in any of their shenanigans he just grabs Niall's hand and they run off to one of their dorms and kiss and cuddle all afternoon.

Zayn would've never thought that his life could change so much in such a short time, but it did. And he thinks to himself that all good things come when you don't expect them.


End file.
